Iron Maiden
by Reya Guardian of Azarath
Summary: Catalina Evans is the CEO of Evans International, she is the new business partner of Tony Stark. who as Iron Man now has some competition in the form of the Iron Maiden
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

_**Memories are our windows into our pasts, in a single moment one person can alter your future.**_

Tony Stark smirked as he climbed out of his Audi R8 and straightened the lapels of his tuxedo jacket, the screams of delight that women gave whenever he would appear always made him feel good, amongst other screams he heard from women.

It was his 43rd birthday, most men get antsy when they his that age but thanks to his mini arc reactor he felt as strong as a man in his twenties. He strode up the red carpet to the hotel where his celebration was taking place, he had the self confidant walk of a man who had it all, looks, money, fame and a huge fan base thanks to his outside interests. Although giving up the weapons trade had affected the stock of his company coming out as Iron Man had done wonders for the company's image.

Tonight he was not only celebrating his birthday but the new partnership between Stark Industries and Evans International one of his former rival companies. It was run by the daughter of an old family friend Catalina Evans a 23 year old business and technological genius, her company and intelligence had rivalled his own for some time until she approached him with a tempting business deal, to stop the rivalry and merge the two companies .

Now as he entered the lobby of the hotel and made his way to the main function room he couldn't help but wonder about his new partner. He hadn't seen Catalina since she was 13 and going off to MIT, she used to have such a crush on his. He still pictured her as that smart assed little teen with the big blue eyes and curly blond hair, she had just his puberty and he could already see that she would grow into a very attractive woman.

He entered the room and acted shocked at the sound of surprise being yelled and the loud applause he received, he smiled for the cameras, kissed cheeks and shook hands and saw vaguely familiar women he must have slept with at some point. He cringed when he saw Kristy Everheart, that pesky reporter that kept popping up at the worst time. Ever since that night they'd met in Vegas and subsequently ended up having a one nighter she had taken it upon her self to hound him.

He downed a scotch on the rocks and prepared for another of her flirtatious interrogations, and was surprised when she strode straight past him towards an attractive young woman with her back towards him. He overheard Kristy asking similar questions to the interview that he had first had with her. He didn't catch the woman's name though.

"Miss…., you've been called a modern day Marie Currie, what do you have to say about that?"

"Ludicrous, I don't play with radium"

"and your other nickname the Ice Queen?"

"That one I like, although does the fact that I have an abhorrence of the press really make me an ice queen? I just don't like nosey little bitches who feel the need to pry into every aspect of my private life"

"Why? Do you have something to hide?"

"Everyone has secrets _Ms_ Everheart, now if you'll excuse me I have other matter to attend to"

The woman walked past her and headed towards the stage. Smirking, Tony walked over to the reporter.

"Not much luck with that one either?"

The pretty woman turned to the playboy and scowled.

"you and here would get along famously"

"who was she anyway" he asked

She gave him an 'are you serious' look.

"you're kidding right? That was Catalina Evans, you new business partner" she replied

Tony turned in disbelief and stared at the young woman now standing up behind the podium, her face enhanced on the two mega screens on either side of her. The lights dimmed and everyone turned to the stage. The screens darkened and a voiceover and side show introduction started up.

_Catalina Evans is the only child of the late Industrial Tycoon Trent Evans, a child prodigy in computer and biomedical science Catalina graduated from high school at age 12 and had completed a master's degree at MIT by the age of 16, she took over her fathers company at age 20 when he passed away from a stroke. Now at age 2__3 she runs Evans International with an iron will and solid plans to make this world a better place._

Tony was amazed at the young woman shown on the screens, the perky little blond had grown up quite a bit. Gone were the uncontrollable blond ringlets and the rosey cheeks of pubescence, she was now a tall and quite stunning young woman. Her hair was cut just below her shoulders and layered so that the natural curls bounced up loosely, coloured a vibrant burgundy that made her bright blue eyes stand out amazingly. The once straight lines of her body had matured and given way to the full and luscious curves of real woman, she now boasted full breast and hips separated by a well defined hourglass figure that put Marilyn Monroe to shame.

Her body was sheathed in a dark purple halter dress that had a sweet heart neckline, held up by two wide strips of see through fabric of the same colour. The top and hem were detailed with intricate purple bead work. The dress clung to her body showing off every inch of her strong body. Hardly an inch of fat any where.

She had a strong stubborn jaw line with full lips, high cheekbones and a straight delicate nose, she was of Scandinavian decent and it showed in her features. Such an unusual face was more striking than beautiful, a mischievous dimple situated in the right corner of her mouth winked in and out of sight with every smile.

"Well…that pretty much covers my life huh, who knew that 23 years could be condescend into a 15 second voice over" she laughed

"On behalf of my company I would life to extend my gratitude to all of you for coming to our little shindig this evening, to no only celebrate the birthday of a man who has been an inspiration not only to me, but to so many in this great country and the new biomedical research facility that is the first of many joint ventures between Evans International and Stark Industries. So ladies and Gentlemen I ask you to raise your glasses to my old friend Tony Stark…Tony Happy Birthday, may you have many more to come. Salute!" she called out raising her glass of champagne.

"SALUTE!" called everyone

She dipped her head slightly at Tony, the dimple winking at him as she smiled, she took a sip of her drink he eyes watching him from over the rim of her wine glass. She placed the glass on the tray of a passing waiter and strode over to him. He hips undulated with ever measured step of her heels.

She approached him with a full smile of delight.

"Tony Stark, its been a long time" she said slyly as she embraced the industrialist.

"it certainly has Catalina" he replied.

He hugged her tightly feeling her body mould easily to his, enjoying the feeling of her breasts pressed up against his chest. His hands pressed against her back could feel the strong muscles under the dress. They separated and he looked the young woman over appreciatively.

"Look at you, I haven't seen you since you were heading off for your freshman year at MIT, you look so different from that perky little blonde I saw drive off ten years ago" his voice took on a nostalgic tone.

She smiled at the older man.

"Well I should hope so; you know you haven't changed a bit since I last saw you either. You are still the most handsome man that I know"

Her eyes darkened with attraction.

The pair had completely forgotten about the blond reporter standing close by, taking note of the banter between the two billionaires. This would make a juicy piece for the gossip column. She walked off with a satisfied smile on her pretty face.

Tony lead Catalina on to the dance floor and the pair moved around with all the other dancing couples. He noticed how natural it felt to hold her in his arms, he still could not believe that this gorgeous woman that he was entering a partnership with was the daughter of one of his family's friends. Suddenly feeling claustrophobic he clasped her hand and directed Catalina out onto the balcony, he leaned back against the rail and watched the young woman stare out over the city lights.

She turned and looked back at him, her eye lids were lowered and a soft smile graced her lips.

"Tony can I be honest with you, I did this business deal with you through the lawyers because I was nervous about seeing you"

He looked confused.

"Why would you be nervous?"

Her blue eyes connected with his brown ones and held his gaze.

"because when I was a kid I was completely in love with you, and I was worried that if I saw you I would feel like a teenager again"

He sniggered a bit.

"come on, Catalina I'm twenty years older than you. As if you would be in love with a guy my age"

He face remained serious.

"Actually you're exactly the kind of man I would pursue, I find older men much more attractive. I cannot hold an intelligent conversation with anyone else."

She took a deep breath

"I admit that I find you very attractive and am fighting the urge to kiss you senseless right now, so in order to make this business deal work I am going to be logical and keep this relationship strictly plutonic"

Tony actually looked a bit disappointed, but he felt the same way so all he could do was agree.

"That's why I am going to force my self only to do this once"

He looked up just as Catalina slid her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his, he was surprised for a second before wrapping his arms around her waist and responding with gusto. He knew he was a good kisser but this young woman had skill that he had never felt before. Her lips were so soft and inviting and when she opened his mouth and slid her tongue in he almost lost control. He had kissed a lot of women in his time but he couldn't remember enjoying it this much.

When they finally came up for air, Catalina pressed her forehead against his and breathed deeply for a second before pulling her self out of his arms and straightening her dress. She reapplied her lip stick and turned back to Tony, he still looked a bit dazed. She stroked his cheek and smiled gently.

"Ok, so now that we go that out of our systems, I'm going to go and say bye to all the pretentious yes men in there and then I am going to head home because I have a full day tomorrow. Now don't forget we have a meeting tomorrow at 2:30, and I know how u are with punctuality so if you are even 30 seconds late I will kick your ass"

She said with a grin, he nodded.

She kissed him on the cheek and walked back into the party, leaving Tony standing there absolutely kicking himself. After about 10 minutes and seeing Catalina walk down the red carpet and get into her limo he walked back into the party, ordered a drink and found the nearest attractive female to hang out with. He woke up late the next morning with a slight hangover and a woman whose name he couldn't remember laying face down next to him.

He go up, downed a cup of espresso, had a hot shower and headed down to his work shop to do some upgrades on his Iron Man suite. He buzzed Pepper to get her to show the woman out.

As he was tweaking the servo motors in the knee mechanisms he had the midmorning news on, he had tuned out for most of the reports until the news caster mentioned an armed robbery.

_An attempted robbery at the Malibu National Bank was foiled last night not by the police or even our own resident Iron Man, while Tony Stark was seen celebrating his birthday at the fabulous Malibu Grand Hotel__ an unknown individual stopped three heavily armed men from stealing over 15 million dollars from the bank vault. This unknown hero was wearing a blue metal suite similar in design to that of Iron Man, however this was no man. An expert that analysed the security footage state that this new suite appears more advanced and of a smaller design that appears to be for a woman. Reporters have dubbed this individual the Iron Maiden, Iron Man it looks like you may have some competition on your hands. _

Tony was shocked at this report, during the news cast Pepper had come down into the shop with the mail and Tony's schedule for the day. He turned to his faithful assistant.

"Did you know anything about this?" he said motioning to the TV.

Pepper looked a bit bored.

"No I just saw the report upstairs after I sent your lady friend on her way home, she left her number and email for you"

He just looked at her

"That's what I thought, ok so today you have a meeting with the board of directors at 11, you're checking the progress of the mini arc reactors with the engineers at 12:30 and then you're having lunch with Lt Col. Rhodes and then your meeting with Miss Evans at 2:30. I guess we'll figure this Iron Maiden business out later"

He smiled at his assistant and thanked her; she turned and walked back up the stairs the sound of her high heels echoed up into the living area.

He informed JARVIS to finish working on the suit and find out anything he could about this other iron person.

He put on one of his many expensive business suits, fixed his hair and trimmed his goatee. When he was happy with his appearance he walked down into the shop, jumped into his choice of car for the day and drove off to Stark Industries.

**Catalina's Office 2:00**

Catalina was sitting at her desk looking at the holographic image of her exo suite, a hologram of an attractive blond woman appeared next to her.

"Last night's exercise proved successful I believe" she said in a soft British accent.

Catalina's eyebrows were knitted in concentration as she focussed on a component on the right wrist mechanism.

"The third concussion pad in the second row was .5 seconds late on impact, increase electromagnetic output by .05 gigs and rotate by 7 degrees clockwise, which should increase reaction time and impact ratio. And although the test went well I wish that the media hadn't found out, _Iron Maiden_...Come on I mean how many copy right laws are they breaking by calling me that, and how do they know if I am a _maiden_."

The hologram simply nodded and made the necessary adjustments.

"On an unrelated topic Cat, how did the party go last night? Was Tony like you remembered him?"

She stared at the hologram and sighed

"The party was the usual shit, ass kissers, pretentious darlings, and the rich people who pretend they actually give a damn. The people that actually care about the world never seem to turn up"

"And Mr Stark?" she prodded

"Tony was even more handsome than I remembered; he's one of those guys that no matter what age he is he will still be good looking. He was charming, sexy, and he was a fantastic kisser" she replied with a tight voice.

The hologram was not satisfied

"Why do you sound upset? If he was everything you thought he would be"

Catalina put down her tool and leaned back in her chair.

"Because it made it al the more difficult to tell him that we couldn't get involved other than as friends and business partners"

The hologram slapped its virtual head with the palm of it's hand.

"You know for a woman with your level of intelligence you really can be a complete idiot some times"

She glared at the holographic woman.

"Sylia, there is a difference between intelligence and wisdom"

Sylia shrugged her holographic shoulders

"Any way your meeting with Mr Stark is scheduled to begin in 20 minutes, I suggest that you freshen up"

The holographic woman shut off leaving Catalina to put on a clean suit and fix her make up. She put on her favourite black suit with the pleated knee length skirt and the form fitting jacket that was moulded to her figure. Underneath her wore a white silk v neck blouse and skin colour stockings that she loved to rub together cause it made her legs feel sexy. The outfit was completed with her 4in black stiletto heels with the buckles across the bridge of her foot, she kept a pair of cushion soled flat sandals under her desk for when her feet started to hurt, which usually happened after the six hour mark.

She reapplied her make up so that her face was once again flawless, she took a light brown eye liner pencil and coloured in the small beauty mark that was next to her right eye. She pulled her now straight hair back into a high bun and secured it with a butterfly clip. Every inch the successful and attractive business woman, she invoked all her confidence to face that man that still made her heart pound and to find the strength to resist him…for now.

End Chapter 1.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_**The façade of humanity is designed for comfort, and with increased comfort comes increased malleability **_

True to his nature Tony was late for his meeting with Catalina; he strode in to her office about ten minutes late. When he walked in the door he spotted her looking out of the massive window behind her desk, he noticed a small tattoo on the side of her neck; poking out of the top of her shirt. She absentmindedly reached behind to scratch the back of her neck. He coughed to get her attention.

"You're late Mr Stark" she stated, clearly annoyed.

"Sorry lunch ran a bit long" he replied sheepishly.

"Tony, lunch only requires two functions. To eat and digest food, it should not take one hour and 45 minutes to perform this task" her face remained impassive.

He actually squirmed a little; this Catalina was different from the sexy woman he had met last night. This woman was all business; it was kind of a turn on, because of her heels she was actually taller than him now so he had to look up to her.

She motioned for him to take a seat opposite her across her desk; she sat down and crossed her legs.

"Ok so this is the planned layout for the research centre, I wanted to get your final opinion on the……"

The meeting continued quite uneventfully, they discussed the new project and made some final improvements. Tony kept trying to put in some flirtatious remarks and get her to smile, but he didn't have any luck. She kept a straight poker face during the entire meeting.

As she was putting away a couple of files and he was going to leave the hologram appeared, nearly scaring he shit out of him.

"Catalina, the modifications to project Halo have been completed and are ready for testing, Reed Richards called again asking for your opinion on his new satellite tracking system and Charles Xavier called to congratulate you on your new research facility"

Catalina looked up and smiled at the hologram.

"Thankyou Sylia, I'll test out Halo this afternoon, tell Reed I'll meet him next Tuesday at 4:00pm and give Charles my love and send him the specs for the black bird upgrades"

The hologram nodded and made a metallic beeping noise. Then looked over at the dumbstruck Tony and coughed subtly. Catalina looked back up and snapped to attention.

"Oh yeah, Tony this is Sylia my assistant, Sylia this is Tony Stark"

Tony regained his composure.

"Hi"

Sylia smirked at the stunned industrialist.

"A pleasure, so you must be the man with the Iron Ass"

Tony's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"Scuse me?"

Sylia looked innocent.

"Your Iron Man suit, It is a very impressive piece of technology"

Catalina suppressed a laugh; Tony looked so embarrassed that his face was nearly as red as his suit.

He was about to come up with a quick rebuttal when an alarm sounded from Catalina's watch. She pressed a small button and gave an empty smile.

"I'm afraid that our meeting has to end now, I have previous engagement that requires my immediate attention"

He raised an eyebrow in suspicion be decided not to ask, he just leaned down and picked up his suit jacket and held out his hand.

"In that case Miss Evans I will take my leave" she shook his hand firmly

"Thankyou for coming Tony, we have some more details to go over so we have to schedule another time to meet"

He smiled slyly.

"Why don't you come over to my house tomorrow night we can have dinner and go over the finer details"

Catalina was about to reply when she stumbled a bit and had to grab hold of the desk for support. Tony moved to help her but she held up her hand in a stop motion.

"I'm fine; I just need to have some coffee." She stated with a weak smile

He didn't look quite convinced.

"Really I am, I'll come by your house at about 8"

He reluctantly turned and walked out of her office, Catalina didn't move until she saw him get into his car and drive off. When he was out of sight he legs buckled and she collapsed onto the floor. Sylia knelt down beside her, concern was written all over her virtual face.

"Catalina, you've got to get into the energy stream your nanites are running on low"

She looked up at her virtual assistant and got shakily to her feet.

"Ok activate the energy stream and set the parameters to full, I'll need all the energy I can get for when I test the hard suite again".

Catalina locked her office door and sat back in her large office chair. A strange tubular device came down from the ceiling above her and stopped about 1 meter from her head and a stream of blue energy shot out from the device and was concentrated on the top of Catalina's head.

Her eyes rolled back in her head and she started convulsing. Sylia was watching the entire time monitoring Catalina's vital signs. The energy stream lasted for about 15 minutes, when Catalina sat up again she was quite pale but felt a lot better. Once a week she had to spend 15 minutes in a high level energy stream that fuelled the nanites that were in her body.

An accident in one of her fathers laboratories had left Catalina with microscopic bioorganic robots in her system, these nanites became permanently integrated in all of her vital organs, circulatory, respiratory and lymphatic systems. Unfortunately she had no control over them and the energy starved robots began living off her own, her father had to surgically implant a small micro chip in the base of her skull in her medulla oblongata so that she could gain control.

When the nanites were running on full her body was in perfect health, but once they became starved again she became very weak and in the beginning had almost died a couple of times. She had yet to find a permanent solution to the nanites energy problems but for now the energy stream got the job done; maybe she could get a look at the Arc reactor technology.

Later that afternoon when she had returned to her home she went down into her work shop to check on project HALO an armoured suit that had been designed to her own physical specifications. She had been working on the suit for a couple of years now and had been ready for a final test when Tony Stark had made his _I am Iron Man_ announcement. So now it seemed as though she was copying him, although his suit had provided her with a unique opportunity to make some upgrades to hers.

One of her company's satellites had made a detailed analysis of his suit during an extended flight over Bahrain; it had given her the chance to look at each individual component. Her original suit had been made of heavier armour and had not been as form fitting, since then she had added more state of the art weaponry. Concussion pads on her knuckles and on the front of her feet, laser ribbon cutters that came out of the back of her helmet, retractable diamond edged blades that were housed under the concussion pads. The blades reached about a foot in length and could slice a hair in two by barely touching it. Her suit was also equipped with information gathering instruments connection wires and cables, large memory capacity and the suit was automatically tied in to Sylvia's main frame so she was always being monitored.

She also had a barrage of ammunition and various other gadgets tied into the suit. Its flight capabilities were extraordinary, faster than any air craft ever designed and her upgraded armour was a lighter and denser material than the gold titanium that stark had used. A platinum alloy that fit her like a glove, it really didn't leave much to the imagination.

She wore a skin tight inner suit that connected her to every circuit in the hard suit; the inner suit had a magnetic strip that connected to the implant in the back of her head. The suit actually ran off the power provided by the nanites.

She pulled on the inner suit and stepped into the hard suit revelling at the feeling of it closing up and encasing her body, every point of her body was connected. She flexed her fingers and wrists, getting a feeling of the suit and making sure that everything was in working order. She watched the display screen with in the optical relay of the helmet.

"Sylia are you there?" she asked.

"I've been uploaded and we are ready to go" called the distinctive voice of her assistant.

"How are the sky's looking?"

"There's a high pressure cold front approaching from the south but it shouldn't be a problem, and there's heavy air traffic in the vicinity of the specified flight area"

She smiled to her self and walked into a small round chamber much like an elevator shaft as the door shut she felt a surge of electrical energy build up around her, the floor under her feet fell away and he hovered for a split second be fore being catapulted up out of the shaft and into the open skies. While it was not required for this model to be catapulted in order to gain full flight momentum, she still used the system for the thrill of the ride.

Meanwhile back at Tony Starks house he him self had suited up for a flight as well, unknown to each other they had plotted flight paths that ultimately intersected each other over Moscow. He had shot off about 20 minutes before Catalina, so he was a ways of from interception.

She reached Mac5 in under7.5 seconds and was flying faster than any radar could detect, when she returned to more conventional slight speed she was picked up by radar over St Petersburg and the Air Force put through a call to Iron Man.

_Hello_

_Tony, its Rhodes_

_Oh hey Rhodey what's up?_

_Nothin__ much, we just got an unknown craft that came up on radar near your position and wanted you to check it out._

_Any idea what it might be?_

_Well it's too small to be a jet and to quick to be a UAV. At first we thought it was you but it's smaller than your suit._

_Think it might be this Iron Maiden character._

_Maybe…so can you check it out and get back to us_

_Sure, hey after this you and me gotta go get trashed at the Golden Banana_

_You buyin?_

_Yeah…_

_I'm in._

_Sweet, over and out_

_What?_

_Sorry, I always wanted to say that_

_Ok Tony, go do your thing._

Iron Man cleared for supersonic flight and soared off to intercept the unknown bogie; he couldn't help laughing in joy as he shot through the clouds. His enjoyment was interrupted when JARVIS spoke up.

"Sorry to interrupt Sir but we are approaching the unknown craft and should intercept with in thirty seconds"

"Thankyou JARVIS"

Looking out his view screen he saw a small blue figure straight ahead of him, he altered speed until he was flying neck and neck with it. He turned his head and had a good look at the other person; he could see with out a doubt that it was a woman.

"JARVIS, I think that it's a woman"

"A very astute observation sir"

"Very funny, attempt radio contact"

"Link is established"

"Unknown flyer this is Iron Man, please respond"

"Hi there you have reached the voice mail of Iron Maiden, she currently doesn't give a shit if you're Iron Man so please leave a message at the tone and then kindly fuck off"

The radio shut off and she shot ahead of him, he swore to himself and followed her. He pulled ahead and stopped directly inform of her forcing Iron Maiden to stop in her tracks. The two armour plated flyers hovered face to face, an air borne stand off between two titans…so to speak. Iron Man was the first to break the silence.

"Hi there"

"Hi"

"So my buddies at the air force were just wondering what you were doing up here"

"I'm ordering a pizza, getting a couple of drinks…what does it look like I'm doing"

"Ok, look maybe we should just land and talk this out face to face"

"Nice try Stark, but I have no interest in telling anyone who I am. I'm just testing out my new flight components and seeing if I can do some damage control, same as you"

"Ok, well that explains…"

He didn't get to finish his sentence before Iron Maiden in a sudden burst of speed shot off in the opposite direction, before he could get Jarvis to track her, the suit activated a stealth device and she disappeared.

_Rhodey?_

_Hey Tony, what'd you find out?_

_Well…it wasn't a UAV._

_So was it that Iron Maiden chick?_

_Yep_

_So who is she?_

_Dunno__ she wasn't really in a chatty mood._

_Well what __**did**__ she say?_

_Said she was testing some components and doing some damage control_

_Ok, we'll do some recon and work the rest out later_

_Nice, see at the Banana._

He turned and headed back to Malibu, deciding to pick up a couple of burgers on the way freaking out the acne ridden teenager sitting in the drive through booth. Like anyone would believe that Iron Man had flown through to buy a cheese burger and fries.

Catalina landed down in the catapult tube and ejected herself from the hardsuit; she exited the tube and almost collapsed into a desk chair. Sylia appeared in front of her looking concerned.

"Catalina what's wrong? I tracked your flight and nothing happened apart from your confrontation with Iron Man"

Catalina sighed and ran her long slender fingers through her hair.

"I don't know what happened; in my hardsuit I cease to be Catalina. I become part of the suit, when that mask covers my face I change…I become Iron Maiden"

Sylia frowned and rolled her eyes.

"That would be the perfect quote for an expose, but right now might I suggest you take off that inner suit and rest. The nanites may heal your body but it is up to you to heal your mind"

Catalina sniggered and did as she was instructed; pausing for a moment to think.

"You know I just realised the irony of the situation"

"And what would that be?"

A stupid grin broke out on her face.

"Well I'm wearing this suit to try and save peoples lives, and the news papers have named me after a medieval torture device designed to end lives"

Sylia slapped her virtual head in exasperation.

"Only you would find that amusing"

Catalina smirked and placed the inner suit in the specially designed cleaning unit, being that she was to tired to give a damn she just turned and headed up into the main living area of her house stark naked. She paused in front of a large mirror and cringed at the sight that she saw.

Although her body was looking in top form as usual, her face looked pale and worn. She had dark circles under her eyes from her lack of sleep and her skin was pasty and dry, she should remind Sylia to lock in a time for a spa and facial treatment. To make matters worse a scar that had been a pain in the ass for Catalina was right now a vivid red against the paleness of her flesh. The scar was a result of a fight she had gotten into on the first day of college, it ran down the right side of her face cutting through her eye and down on to her cheek.

She was lucky that she had not gone blind, some bitch had been making snide comments about her family and generally insulting her, it had resulted in both parties having to get stiches in the infirmary.

It was generally easy to hide with carefully applied make up and strategic hair placement, but when she was ill, tired or had just gotten out of the shower it stuck out like a saw thumb.

She shrugged and got straight into bed, sleeping in the nude had become a habit.

Another habit was putting on that perfection façade for the world, she was a young woman running a multi million dollar company in what was considered a mans world. Having to remain indifferent and cold seems like Ice Maiden was an accurate nickname.

As she drifted of to sleep her last thoughts were what would Tony think if he saw her as she really was, full of self doubt, and wishing that for once she could just wake up in the morning and not have any worries. You never know…he might actually understand.

End Chapter 2.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Catalina took a page out of Tony's book and decided to cancel all her appointments for the day, she was so tired that she slept in until ten and spent the rest of the morning lounging around in her pyjamas and watching TV, something that she hadn't done for a long time. Sylia was concerned but glad that her friend had decided to take some time to her self; she had been going flat out for such a long time.

She rather enjoyed taking a day off, it felt good to just act her age for a while, she played a little play station, ate half a tub of ice cream, gave her self a manicure and phoned some of her friends from college to organise a night out. She only remembered that she was having a dinner meeting with Tony when clock struck 7:00.

Seeing that the sun wasn't going to set until later Catalina decided that she would take the opportunity to run over to his house, she pulled on her workout clothes and a pair of sneakers, stuffed some clean clothes into a small back pack with her flash drive containing the work they needed to go over and headed out the door. She called out to Sylia.

"Don't wait up Baby"

She heard an audible scoff come from somewhere in the house. Shaking her head in amusement Catalina pulled her hair back and put in her earplugs, turning her ipod to her workout play list she put sneakers to the pavement and ran towards Tony Starks Cliffside mansion.

The music pounded through her body her feet pounded the pavement, it took her about 45 minutes to reach Tony's house, by the time she got through security and wound her way up the absurdly long drive way she was drenched in sweat and in desperate need of a shower.

Tony was down in his work shop tinkering with his roadster when Jarvis notified him that some one was at the front door; he wiped his hands clean on a shammy cloth and wandered up the stairs the sound of the door bell resonated through the hallway. He opened the door to a sweaty and panting Catalina, boy did that conjure up some thoughts.

"Hey, you're early" he stated with a quirky grin.

"Yep, I…thought…I…would …get ….in…a…run….at…the….same…time" she panted, deep breaths punctuated each word.

Tony gaze was caught at the sight of her heaving chest; Catalina noticed the line of sight and rolled her eyes.

"Are you done admiring the view? I'd really like to have a shower before we go over the final building specs and the outline for the ground breaking ceremony"

Tony snapped out of his daze and looked back up at her face.

"Huh? Oh yeah, come on in. You can use the down the bathroom through the door to the left, all the towels there are clean and you can find everything you need in the cabinet above the sink" he replied pointing Catalina in the direction of the guest bathroom.

As a bit of revenge for being a pervert Catalina gave Tony a tight, and sweaty hug as she passed by through the large door way. Tony could have sworn he could here JARVIS sniggering as the cold clammy feeling of her sweat drenched arms penetrated his clothing, it felt pretty gross despite the fact that he actually enjoyed the sight of Catalina sweaty and panting. That was an image that conjured up some damned inappropriate thoughts that shot straight from his head to his groin.

To prevent a more visual affirmation of such thoughts he had to visualise Rhodey doing the Cancan in a thong bikini. He shuddered at the image dancing in his mind, which was enough to get anyone out of the mood. He heard the fan in the bathroom turn on and the water start pouring out of the shower head…he also heard Catalina's sigh of delight at the sensation of the hot water hitting her body.

He coughed and walked into the living room to set up a suitable work area, order a pizza and find something to drink. While he was milling around he could hear faint singing coming from the bathroom…not very good singing unfortunately. As striking and intelligent as Catalina was, one thing that she could not do was hold a tune with out sounding like a tone deaf yak.

By the time the pizza arrived Catalina was out of the shower and strolled out into the living room her hair still damp had been brushed back from her face and fell just past her shoulders in shiny damp ringlets. Her layered fringe was brushed so that it fell across her right eye and brushed her cheekbones, her skin was freshly scrubbed and glowing. She was dressed in a pair of grey formfitting bootleg jeans and a tight black KoRn t-shirt. He looked up when he heard the sound of her bare feet padding in across the marble floor; she had a small laptop and some files in her hands. He liked this look on her, granted she had looked sexy as hell in that purple dress and powerfully confident in the black business suit, but now in this get up she looked like a college girl coming over for a study session. He suddenly felt 17 again.

Catalina grinned at the sight of the large pizza box from Giuseppe's Pizzeria; she plonked her stuff on the couch and lifted the lid inhaling the scent of the different types of meat products. She pulled out a slice and bit into it with a vengeance.

Tony looked surprised at her gusto.

"I take it that you're not a tofu girl then?"

Catalina quirked an eyebrow and swallowed her mouthful of meat lovers.

"Tofu is the root of all evil, and there's only one thing that can change a person's mind, and that's a modified Uzi with an extra-long clip"

Tony choked on his drink and snorted loudly with laughter at that statement.

"I don't think I have ever heard that one before"

They ate their pizza and went over the final details for the new building and were relaxing on the couch with a couple of drinks, just hanging out and talking.

"…so I just turned to the reporter and said 'Jesus, man, so much of life is just f***in' detailin' the car'".

Catalina sniggered and took a sip of her drink.

"You know this scotch, while expensive and delicious just doesn't seem to get the job done"

Tony looked shocked and appalled

"How can you say that, this scotch is perfectly aged and fermented for maximum effect"

Catalina smiled evilly and asked where he kept his other spirits. Tony pointed at a nondescript cupboard next to the hole where the baby grand piano used to be, she stood up and opened it to find almost every spirit, liquor and mixer ever created. She pulled out three bottles, a spirit glass and a measuring cylinder used to measure out 30ml and 15ml quantities of alcohol. Her back was turned towards Tony, so he couldn't see what she was making. She poured out three different shots into the glass and stirred the mixture with a swizzle stick.

She brought back the glass and handed it to Tony; she sat back down on the couch and motioned for him to take a sip. He looked wearily at the glass and at Catalina; she just smiled innocently and flicked a now dry curl back from her face. Tony sniffed the glass and pulled back, what ever this concoction was it smelled strong. He took a mouth full and swallowed. He coughed and gasped for breath, WOAH! That was one strong cocktail.

"What the hell's in this thing?" he asked, gasping as the strong drink burned down his throat, warming his body.

Catalina cracked up laughing and tears started streaming down her cheeks.

"Its called rocket fuel, its got rum, tequila and vodka in it" she managed to stammer out "I wanted to see if you could handle a real drink"

She reached out and took the glass, knocked back a gulp and shuddered at the taste before smiling at the warming effect. Tony snatched it back and downed the rest of the drink, the beverage having an almost immediate effect he swayed a little and smiled drunkenly. He flopped down on the couch beside Catalina; he looked straight into her eyes and brushed a stray curl out of her face. His hand stroked her cheek gently and brushed against her lips. She smiled and leaned into his hand, enjoying his ministrations.

She kissed his palm and enclosed his hand in her own. She sighed and sat back against the arm of the chair.

"Tony, you know that nothing can happen between us" she said heavily

That one sentence seemed to have an instant sobering effect on him.

"Why the hell not! It obvious that there is something between us so why cant we…"

Catalina cut him off with a finger on his mouth.

"Because as much as I like you, I am not going to end up as another one of your tricks. I do not want any of the other company heads out there thinking that I will have sex with every person I do business with, its hard enough being a young woman as the head of my company trying to prove that I am as good as the rest, I don't need people thinking that I am any easy lay too" she replied with conviction.

She looked off to one side at the beautiful ocean scenery with the full moon reflecting off the water. Tony clasped her chin gently in his finger tips and turned her face back to meet his.

"Why would you think you would only mean one night to me?" he asked earnestly.

"Come on Tony, everyone knows how you are with women. You spend one night with them and then the next morning send them on their merry way and forget their names…I couldn't take having that happen to me, not from you"

Her pretty blue eyes grew shiny and she pressed her face into his shoulder and sighed deeply.

"God Tony, when I was a teenager I used to dream about the day you would look at me like that; and now that it's happening I can't do a damn thing about it"

Tony wrapped his arms around the younger woman and held her tightly. He breathed in the scent of her hair, she smelled like jasmine and coconut.

"Tali, you would never be a one nighter. No woman has ever made me react the way that you have…for one thing you are a lot smarter than me, and that's a feat in its self".

She sniggered in to his shirt, then pulled back to look at him with a smirk on her face.

"That's true I am smarter than you…and better dressed"

"Yeah but do you have a kickass gold titanium alloy suit that can blow stuff up" he rebutted.

'Yes, and its even better than yours' she thought.

"No, but if I did it would kick your suites ass all the way back to kingdom come". She retorted with a grin and a poke in the chest, her finger nail connected with Tony's arc reactor and made a soft clink sound.

She tugged down the neckline of Tony's t-shirt to get a better look at the glowing blue device embedded in the millionaire's chest. She traced an outline of the device with her finger tip, Tony sucked in a breath at the feeling of her finger tips against his skin. Catalina stared at the device the gentle blue glow illuminating her own blue eyes.

She looked back up at Tony and smiled softly.

"This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen"

Tony smirked sexily and leaned in for another kiss when JARVIS rudely interrupted.

"I am sorry to intrude sir but it seems that there is a problem at the factory"

Tony sighed irritably and sat back on his haunches.

"Where exactly?"

"In the Hanger sir, the section under the newly restored rector that was previously labled Sector Six"

Tony shot up and the colour drained from his face. That was where he stored the original prototype for his Mach 2 suite, something bad had to be going down.

TBC.


End file.
